Alliance of Free Democrats

The Alliance of Free Democrats (Hungarian: Szabad Demokraták Szövetsége - SZDSZ ) was a liberal political party in Hungary. After the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 it was after the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) second-strongest political force. Between 1994 and 1998, and between 2002 and 2008 she put together with the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP ), the ruling coalition.

Also in the European Parliament, it was represented, where she was a member of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party ( ELDR). However, in the wake of a rapid decline, she was not even represented in the Hungarian Parliament in 2010. The through spin-offs and members fleeing long ago completely marginalized party was 2013, the resolution after payment of the remaining real estate debt known.

History

The SZDSZ was founded in 1988 as an opposition party to the government under the MSZMP in Hungary. It was strongest in 1990 with 23.83 % of the vote opposition party. In 1994, she scored 17.88 % of the vote and entered into a coalition with the MSZP.

In the 1998 parliamentary elections the party reaped bitter electoral losses, from which they could not recover even in the last elections in 2002 and thus only 5.5 % of the vote, which meant 20 seats in parliament. Then set up together with the Hungarian Socialist Party, the government. In the 2004 European elections, the party recovered slightly and received 7.7 % of the votes and thus two seats in the European Parliament. In the 2006 elections, the party was able to increase to 6.5% of the vote and again win 20 of 386 seats in parliament. The coalition with the Socialists was continued as a result of the election results first.

Decline and shift to the right

After the crisis-stricken SZDSZ with only 2.2 % of the vote missed the re-entry into the European Parliament in the European elections in June 2009, party leader Gábor Fodor offered his resignation. In the fractious party Attila Retkes initially found a majority for a price including the agreement required of him nationally liberal course change, which should ensure the survival of the party. As the newly elected chairman of the party, the cultural politician apologized to the voters for the mistakes of the past and called for " to be a patriotic party that beyond the limits of the interests of the Hungarians " represent.

Retkes withdrawal request to faction leader Janos Koka, who was not unconcerned as principal contractor of the previous party leaders Fodor to the grave fighting, but the party fell within a few days in a recent ordeal. Many prominent members announced their withdrawal from the party on, some wanted to not support the right turn, others were put out by the " irreverent nature of the new party leader ." Resigned announced the former Minister of Education Bálint Magyar in the daily Népszabadság: " The SZDSZ in his nature has ceased to exist. " Even in August founded Magyar and longtime SZDSZ chairman Gábor Kuncze the new Liberal civic association ( SZPE ), whereby the party split definitively was completed.

Through the announced shift to the right Retkes had given up the left-liberal profile of the party, but this was primarily a tactical maneuver. On the grounds that a two-thirds majority "of right-wing forces " (meaning especially the national-conservative Fidesz ) trying to prevent in the forthcoming parliamentary elections in April 2010, agreed Retkes early 2010, an electoral alliance with the equally feeble bourgeois Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF ) after his attempt to establish a tripartite alliance with the involvement of socialists, had failed at the MDF. Even against the emergency association of the two turning once relevant parties and long-term counterparty existed in the MDF resistors and there was also exits.

Still, it did the collaboration: while the SZDSZ in the capital aufstellte single candidate, he entered the country no longer with their own lists, but only with each candidate on the list of the MDF. But the landslide election victory of Fidesz was unstoppable. Even with joining forces, the two parties came to only 2.66% of the vote, a single seat could win and were thus out of parliament.

The creeping resolution

After the election, the signs of disintegration in the SZDSZ reinforced. The former faction leader Gábor Horn apologized for the brutal crackdown on unrest around the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian uprising in the fall of 2006: " A decent liberal party would have had to get it done, not only by their fears, what will become of this country to be guided. " Horn admitted that the police for no reason kicked defenseless people and the Fidesz MPs Máriusz Revesz had beaten bloody. Retkes resigned from his position as party leader back, and there was at first no successor.

Took until 16 July 2010 Viktor Szabadai a representative of the young generation of the chair, trying to build on the left-liberal, cosmopolitan tradition of the party. But a fresh breeze it was too late. At the local elections in October 2010, only one candidate could be established. At the latest after the parliamentary elections in the spring of even the most loyal party members had largely left the party, including the Budapest Mayor Gábor Demszky, who decided not to run again after 20 years in office. The loss of the last remaining left-liberal stronghold in Budapest at the once renegade and now Fidesz related István Tarlós the SZDSZ fell completely into irrelevance.

In February 2012, the acclaimed corruption scandal in the district of Budapest Erzsébet ended sentenced to long prison terms, which in 2008 arrested former SZDSZ District György Gál was for embezzlement of state funds to eight and a half years in prison. The final demise of the party took its course with the announcement of the indebtedness of the party in the amount of 1 billion forints (about 3.3 million euros ), of which about a large part in the form of real estate loans in the State Hungarian Development Bank ( MFB ). In 2010 the party had to give up their ancestral Budapest headquarters in District XIV. After their last party congress in June 2013, the party promised a proper settlement and was confident of being able to settle the debt by means of the mortgaged properties. The public speculation that the debt could fall back on the public sector, however, weigh half a year before the general election in 2014 the political renewal of former SZDSZ politicians.

Party chairman

Péter Tölgyessy November 1991 - November 1992

Iván Pető November 1992 - April 1997

Gábor Kuncze April 1997 - June 1998

Bálint Magyar June 1998 - December 2000

Gábor Demszky December 2000 - June 2001

Gábor Kuncze June 2001 - March 2007

Janos Koka March 2007 - June 2008

Gábor Fodor June 2008 - July 2009

Attila Retkes July 2009 - May 2010

Viktor Szabadai since July 2010

Prominent members

Gábor Demszky Mayor of Budapest (1990-2010)

Árpád Göncz President (1990-2000)

Miklós Haraszti leading opposition activist and co-founder